?Chapter 931:


    As the question hung in the air between them, Maxine murmured to herself, “Rita… Your brilliance never ceases to amaze me.”


    Katrina suddenly doubled over, her body wracked by a violent coughing fit that ended with her spitting a spray of blood onto the floor.


    The harsh, wet sound drew Maxine’s eyes. Her mind reyed their report. Jules had been injured by Cole. Katrina, by Elliana.


    Maxine’s concern had gone straight to Jules. She had all but dismissed Katrina’s injuries. But the truth was written on the floor in blood.


    Maxine’s gaze lingered on Katrina, unreadable. Then, with a flick of her fingers, shemanded, “Katrina,e closer.”


    Katrina had understood from childhood that blood meant nothing in Maxine’s calculus. She was a Griffiths, born and bred, while Jules remained an outsider brought in from the cold. Yet, in Maxine’s calcting gaze, Jules held all the value.


    Maxine’s emotions toward Jules defied simple categorization. Her affection zed unmistakably, but she wouldsh out at him without warning. Sometimes, her eyes would find him across a room, and irritation would bloom across her features for reasons no one could fathom.


    Love-hate captured it perfectly, though the boundaries between devotion and resentment remained impossibly tangled.


    Katrina had never grasped why Maxine selected Jules as the heir’s future partner. Jules possessed no remarkable intelligence, no exceptional talents that set him apart. The decision seemed to spring from some hidden logic that eluded everyone else.


    Yet, despite her confusion, Katrina never dared voice her questions.


    When Maxine’s finger crooked in summons, Katrina shot to her feet and crossed the room. “Grandmother.”


    Maxine examined Katrina’s injuries with clinical detachment, offering no salve orfort. Instead, she posed a question that carried dangerous undertones. “Did Elliana alone inflict this damage?”


    L?tеst chαpt?rs ??n g??lнov?ls.со??


    “Yes,” Katrina answered.


    A satisfied smile curled Maxine’s lips. Only then did she extract a pill from her medicine box and extend it toward Katrina.


    Katrina epted the pill and swallowed it whole. Blessed warmth flooded her system instantly, chasing the pallor from her cheeks and restoring vitality to her battered form.


    As the healing took hold, Maxine spoke with brutal precision. “Katrina, you likely know that I named you heir because alternatives didn’t exist, not because you demonstrated exceptional promise. Measured against your predecessors, you fall devastatingly short in both intelligence and capability.”


    The assessment cut deep, but truth rarely offered mercy.


    Katrina had always known that luck had ced the crown within her reach. Understanding it was one burden. Hearing it dered with such clinical coldness was entirely another. Humiliation crashed over her in waves, and she struggled to decode Maxine’s purpose.


    “Would you care to borate?” Katrina managed, her voice strained with barely contained panic.


    Maxine’s stare could have frozen fire. “Should I discover a more suitable candidate,” she continued without a trace ofpassion, “I will strip you of your position without hesitation. Are we perfectly clear?”


    Katrina’s world tilted dangerously. This role had shaped her entire existence. To be cast aside now, she wouldn’t be able to cope with the failure, let alone endure the mockery from the rest of the family.


    .


    .


    .<fn03f1> Follow current nov?ls on Find~Novel</fn03f1>